Ibrahim Afara, إبراهيم عفارةIbrahım Afara

I studied computer science at the University of Aleppo. In Stockholm I took the Motion Creative programme at Hyper Island in 2018 and game development, specialising in technical art, at FutureGames in 2020, and worked freelance as a 3D generalist in Berlin and Stockholm: motion, 3D and effects for live events, game studios, cinematics and trailers.

At Viaplay Studios Animation I led the FX on Karma & Jonar, an eight-episode animated series rendered in Unreal Engine and released in 2022: fire, water, a sky that burns in the last episode, and a Houdini setup for destruction that brought the show's own cameras and animation into the simulation.

At Toadman Interactive I spent three years as a senior FX artist, making gameplay and environment effects in two engines: EvilVEvil, Toadman's co-op vampire shooter, in Stingray; Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2, which Toadman co-developed with Cold Iron Studios; and Singing they Pass, a tactical RPG by Roguehaven, in Unreal Engine. I also built shader and particle workflows that the rest of the FX team took up.

On every team I ended up writing tools as well as effects: on Karma & Jonar a fire setup, a Blueprint that emits smoke along a spline, and the bridge from Houdini to the engine. In 2026 I started EQLabs to build tools like these properly, once, for everyone.

The dot on the i in my name is a rhombus, and so is every dot in my name in Arabic, إبراهيم عفارة. In real-time graphics a rhombus is a quad: two triangles, the smallest surface a GPU draws. In Arabic calligraphy the rhombic dot, the nuqta, is pressed with the reed pen and used to measure the letters. In Arabic, the dot also decides the letter: take the dot off the ف in عفارة and the shape could be read as another letter. One shape, both of my languages.

Art with a frame budget. An effect is finished when it looks right and fits in the frame it has. A beautiful effect that costs too much gets cut, not shipped.

Tools should disappear. The best tool is the one an artist forgets they are using. It opens where they already are, does one job, and gets out of the way.

Show the breakdown. That is how effects people judge each other's work, so every case study here shows how the shot was made: the setups, the passes and the tools behind it.

I speak Arabic, English and Swedish. Write to me at hello@iafara.me.